Riyad Mahrez missed a penalty but Leicester City still went back to the top of the Premier League table with a 1-1 draw at rejuvenated Aston Villa Saturday. The Foxes' fairytale showed no sign of losing any allure as they went ahead at Villa Park with a 28th-minute Shinji Okazaki goal, confirmed with the aid of technology after goalkeeper Mark Bunn had clawed the ball back from beyond the line. Leicester was awarded a penalty five minutes later for Aly Cissokho's handball but Mahrez struck a tame spot kick straight down the middle that Bunn saved with his feet. Bottom club Villa produced a much-improved second half performance sealed by Rudy Gestede's 76th-minute equalizer. The draw moved Leicester one point clear of Arsenal and Manchester City at the top. It could easily have been a three-point lead had Jamie Vardy, who could not stop scoring earlier in the season, not blazed a late shot high, wide and not very handsome. Villarreal ties with Real Madrid Villarreal's scoreless draw with Real Betis was good enough for it to provisionally pull level on points with third-place Real Madrid in the Spanish league Saturday. Villarreal's best scoring opportunity came just moments after kickoff of the evenly contested match at El Madrigal Stadium, when Roberto Soldado sent the ball off the far upright. Fourth-place Villarreal's winning streak ended at six straight rounds, but it equaled Madrid on points, and moved within four points of leader Atletico Madrid and two points of Barcelona. Elsewhere, Celta Vigo got two goals from John Guidetti to earn a 4-3 win after weathering bottom-side Levante's spirited second-half rally, while Sevilla downed Malaga 2-1. Also, Real Sociedad midfielder Xabi Prieto earned and converted a penalty in the 75th to salvage a 1-1 draw at home with Deportivo La Coruna, after Luis Alberto put the visitors in front. Sociedad hit the crossbar twice in the final minutes, and settled for a point. Higuain extends Napoli's lead Gonzalo Higuain scored twice as Napoli extended its lead at the top of Serie A by coming from behind to defeat Sassuolo 3-1 at home Saturday, while Inter Milan's title challenge faltered with a 1-1 draw at Atalanta. Jose Callejon canceled out Diego Falcinelli's early penalty in the 19th minute before Higuain scored twice to extend Napoli's lead at the top to four points. Inter is second on 40 points, one ahead of Juventus. Ciro Immobile marked his Torino comeback with a goal to end their four-game winless streak with a 4-2 home victory over Frosinone. Torino moved up to 11th on 25 points, level with Atalanta, while Frosinone is 18th on 15 points. Ibrahimovic lifts PSG Not for the first time, Paris Saint-Germain was grateful to Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the Swede's second-half goal secured a 1-0 win away to Toulouse in Ligue 1 Saturday. PSG thus extended its enormous lead at the top of the table to 23 points from Angers in second. As PSG maintained their unbeaten run, tailenders Troyes had looked on course for their first win of the season when leading by two goals at home against Rennes after 15 minutes following Fabien Camus and Corentin Jean goals, only to fall to 4-2. Guingamp also threw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 against Nantes. Bastia moved four points above the drop zone thanks to a 1-0 at Montpellier. Bordeaux move into the top half of the table in ninth with Cheick Diabate's 51st minute header the only goal of the night at home against Lille. — Agencies
